Friday, December 31, 2010

"Murals of slaves harvesting sugar cane on a Georgia plantation and picking and ginning cotton are coming off the walls of a state building on the order of a new agriculture commissioner.

The murals are part of a collection of eight works painted by George Beattie in 1956 depicting an idealized version of Georgia farming, from the corn grown by prehistoric American Indians to a 20th-century veterinary lab. In the Deep South, the history in between includes the forced use of slave labor.

"I don't like those pictures," said Republican Gary Black, the newly elected agriculture commissioner. "There are a lot of other people who don't like them."

In one painting, two well-dressed white gentlemen in top hats and dress coats leisurely inspect processed cotton. They're framed on either side by black slaves doing the backbreaking work of cotton farming.

On the left, a slave hunches over to pick cotton bolls by hand. Two other slaves are using the infamous Whitney gin - invented near Savannah - to separate cotton fiber from seeds as a white overseer weighs cotton bags behind them.

"Three years ago, when Lakeway resident Lance Mitchell launched his website, SpeedTrapAhead.org, he didn't hide his intentions. "Not a lot of people flash their lights to warn others nowadays," he wrote. "But, I DO! And when I see a speed trap, I go back up the road a bit, and stand on the sidewalk, wearing my SpeedTrapAhead T-shirt."

Early on April 22, 2009, Mitchell spotted a Lakeway police cruiser set up inside a school zone with a radar gun. He set up his warning station up-road, pointing enthusiastically at his speedtrapahead.org shirt whenever a driver passed. His truck, which also sported a decal of the website address, was parked nearby.

According to Mitchell's video account of the event, a black police cruiser soon arrives.... the group approaches Mitchell; an officer asks for his ID. When he hands over a card with his name, address and birth date, Debrow demands his driver's license. As Mitchell begins to explain how, technically, that is not legally required as he was not driving, Debrow abruptly orders Mitchell handcuffed and placed under arrest.

During the 13 hours he was detained, Mitchell eventually was informed he was being charged with violating Lakeway's sign ordinance by displaying a sign on his shirt and a speedtrapahead.org decal on his truck.

[Judge] Madison found Mitchell not guilty on all counts. Madison continued: "I don't think the intent of the city is to outlaw the wearing of a T-shirt. If we outlaw T-shirts, what happens next? If you have a tattoo on your body, does that become a sign?"

A month after the trial, Mitchell filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Lakeway, Debrow, the code enforcement officer and Almaguer complaining that he "was arrested, jailed and prosecuted ... and deprived of his First Amendment rights merely because he wore a shirt and sported a decal on his truck with a message that reads speedtrapahead.org."

Last month, both sides reached a confidential settlement. "I don't have to worry about working for four or five months," said Mitchell, who is currently unemployed. He also said he's ready to get back to warning Lakeway drivers to slow down.

I was once ticketed by police for flashing my lights to warn other drivers but when I wrote in and complained, they decided that no offence had been committed. You have to stand up for your rights -- always politely, of course.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Opposing a political office-holder is "hate" if he is black?

The President of the Republican National Committee is Michael Steele, a fairly useless black who appears to have been given the job simply as a black counterweight to Obama -- so Republicans can point to him as showing that they are not racist.

His uselessness has now become a pain to many Republicans, however, and there are various moves to dump him from the job. The legal counsel to the GOP was not happy about that and wrote as follows to the people behind the move to dump Steele (excerpt):

"Concern has been expressed among members of the Caucus that these two anti-Steele pledges/resolutions could be viewed as hateful toward Chairman Steele — regardless of what benign names they may be given,” Semanko wrote. “They are also considered arbitrary in that they, quite literally, purport to support anyone but Chairman Steele, without consideration of any particular candidate's qualifications.”

To this, Bopp responded with seeming fury.

“Norm, are you some liberal professor at some liberal arts college enforcing their ‘hate speech’ prohibition?” he demanded of the Idaho GOP chairman. “Is our brand-spanking-new general counsel now the self-appointed speech police? Or were you asked by Chairman Steele to assume this role?”

Continuing, Bopp inferred that by “hateful” Semanko was alluding to perceptions about how the party was treating its first black national chairman.

“I know that liberals view any criticism of someone's conduct to be ‘hateful,’ if the person happens to be black, etc,, but I was unaware that we at the RNC had adopted such a political speech code,” he wrote. “In my view, it is not 'hateful' to decide not to vote for Steele because one views his conduct in office to be detrimental to the interests of the Republican Party and the country, even though he happens to be black.

"A prosecutor has thrown out a complaint made by a Muslim family against a geography teacher who mentioned pork in their son’s class. The teacher was explaining how cold climate in Granada highlands helps to preserve local Serrano ham.

The Children’s Prosecutor of Algeciras, Juan Cisneros, described the complaining pupil’s attitude as ‘abusive, sectarian, capricious and inadmissible’ and ordered the denouncement to be archived. He said: “There is not even the minimal indication of any type of crime.”

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

"Henry Kissinger, the former US Secretary of States, has apologised for his remark in 1973 that it would not be an American concern if the Soviet Union sent its Jews to the gas chambers.

Mr Kissinger's comment was made in a recorded conversation with President Richard Nixon that was only released recently. During the conversation, he was heard saying: "The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Maybe a humanitarian concern."

Mr Kissinger, 87, apologised in a Washington Post opinion article, saying that "references to gas chambers have no place in political discourse, and I am sorry I made that remark 37 years ago".

The transcript of the recording created consternation among Jewish groups because Mr Kissinger is a German-born Jew who fled the Nazis as a child and is regarded as a staunchly pro-Israel figure.

But Mr Kissinger argued that his comment was taken out of context and stated that the Nixon administration had managed to help many Jews to emigrate from the Soviet Union.

I am inclined to side with Kissinger on this. He was clearly setting out the Realpolitik (political "realism") position -- which focuses on interests to the exclusion of morality. And he did immediately add that other, humanitarian, considerations could influence any actual policy decision.

"Thousands of viewers have complained that the Christmas Day show by comedy duo Matt Lucas and David Walliams on BBC1 was racist.

The spoof documentary set in an airport and called Come Fly With Me featured the pair as a range of minority characters. Lucas darkens his face and wears a beard to play a Muslim worker called Taaj. He also adopts a strong West Indian accent to play a black woman called Precious who works in the coffee shop.

However, many viewers failed to see the funny side and took to internet forums to complain about the programme – the first of a six-part series – likening it to ‘a minstrel show’.

The show, broadcast at 10pm, was the second most-watched show on Christmas Day, attracting an audience of 10.3million. BBC1 bosses said they had not yet established how many complained to the corporation.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

The Speaker of Britain's House of Commons mocks and opposes free speech about homosexuality

The Speaker is supposed to be an impartial president of the assembly. The present Speaker, Bercow, is a pipsqueak of Jewish origins who once pretended to be a strong conservative but who made a sharp turn Left when that seemed more likely to further his ambitions. It did. He was made Speaker by Labour Party votes.

The current law says that, for the avoidance of doubt, criticising same-sex conduct or urging people to refrain from such conduct is not, in itself, a crime.

It was inserted by Parliament to a sexual orientation ‘hate crime’ law following a string of alarming cases where Christians had been investigated by the police for their beliefs about sexual ethics.

Mr Bercow has said the free speech amendment is “at best superfluous, and at worst deeply objectionable”. He has added: “Some—although not all—of its supporters would not even know how to spell the word ‘equality’, let alone sign up to it.”

Minnesota: Leftist school officials using Muslims as a cover for their own anti-Christmas bigotry

We read:

"Head Start officials erred in ending Santa Claus visits to St. Peter Head Start classrooms and have unfairly made Somalis into scapegoats on the issue, say two Mankato Somalians who have lived in the community a combined 23 years.

Fanah Adam, who has children in the Mankato Head Start program, said respect for differing cultures and customs is a two-way street — a concept that was sullied by prohibiting a Santa appearance because some families in the class reportedly objected to it.

“Santa and the families (were) not the decision-makers; Head Start administrators are who sent Santa away,” he said.

Ahmed and Adam fear that the virulent anti-Somali reactions on website comment pages and forums to published reports of the Santa ouster could be breeding grounds for hate crimes.

Earlier this year Dennis Jackson of St. Peter, who has played Santa for St. Peter Head Start classes the past four years, was told by program officials that his appearance this year would be against some people’s wishes. He said he was given no specifics.

Chris Marben, who coordinates regional Head Start programs through Mankato-based Minnesota Valley Action Council, said this: “We have Somali families in the program. We’re respecting the wishes of the families.” She did not say how many objected to Santa’s appearance, nor if Somali families specifically objected.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Scoundrels and cops: Liberty sides with the former

We read:

"Phillip Greaves II got some infamy a few weeks ago when his book advocating pedophilia was "outed" on Amazon, forcing the book giant to take contradictory views in a few short days. First, Amazon defended freedom of speech and then caved on the issue. I said nothing because Amazon has the right to make any decision it wanted there.

But now the real scum of society are getting involved, by that I mean low-life, publicity-seeking, red-neck sheriffs from some backwater county in Florida. The sheriff of Polk County, one Grady Judd, had Greaves arrested on obscenity charges because of the text in the book—there were no photos.

The First Amendment, which applies to the states and has since the 14th amendment, clearly says that there should be 'no laws' regulating free speech.

This was pure speech, written words alone. That some hick Sheriff got a bug up his ass over it shouldn't give him the right to impose his view of the First Amendment on the entire country. Whether Greaves book is 'obscene' is impossible to say as the word has absolutely no rational, objective meaning."

The Supreme Court ruled that what makes child pornography illegal, is not the content or the ideas being conveyed, but the use of children to produce the images. But there were no images here, just ink on paper, a combination of letters conveying ideas that the Sheriff, and most of the rest of us, would find problematic. But, even if it conveyed an idea that we all find offensive, it is protected. Rights are not determined by majority support.

"Righthaven, the Las Vegas copyright troll formed this spring, has moved beyond lawsuits over newspaper articles and begun targeting websites for the unauthorized reposting of images. First up, more than a dozen infringement lawsuits concerning the so-called Vdara 'death ray.' ...

Suing over images appears to be a new tack in Righthaven’s legal strategy. Righthaven’s business model is to acquire the copyright to content from newspaper companies ....

The company then sues blogs and other websites that have posted or excerpted those articles."

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Stranger than fiction: Telling the truth makes you unfit to have a gun, apparently!

"An airline pilot is being disciplined by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for posting video on YouTube pointing out what he believes are serious flaws in airport security.

The 50-year-old pilot, who lives outside Sacramento, asked that neither he nor his airline be identified. He has worked for the airline for more than a decade and was deputized by the TSA to carry a gun in the cockpit. He is also a helicopter test pilot in the Army Reserve and flew missions for the United Nations in Macedonia.

Three days after he posted a series of six video clips recorded with a cell phone camera at San Francisco International Airport, four federal air marshals and two sheriff's deputies arrived at his house to confiscate his federally-issued firearm. The pilot recorded that event as well and provided all the video to News10.

The YouTube videos, posted Nov. 28, show what the pilot calls the irony of flight crews being forced to go through TSA screening while ground crew who service the aircraft are able to access secure areas simply by swiping a card. "As you can see, airport security is kind of a farce. It's only smoke and mirrors so you people believe there is actually something going on here," the pilot narrates.

Video shot in the cockpit shows a medieval-looking rescue ax available on the flight deck after the pilots have gone through the metal detectors. "I would say a two-foot crash ax looks a lot more formidable than a box cutter," the pilot remarked.

A letter from the TSA dated Dec. 6 informed the pilot that "an administrative review into your deputation status as a Federal Flight Deck Officer has been initiated." ...

The proposal to cut off access to pornographic material was floated by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey in an interview with the Sunday Times. The government is talking to ISPs to set up a meeting at which the proposal will be discussed.

But, say experts, technical challenges mean any large scale filtering system is doomed to failure."

"Paki" is just an abbreviation of "Pakistani" so it is hard to see what is wrong with that. "Thou shalt not abbreviate"?

"Viewers, politicians and charities last night called for Channel 4 to sack comedian Frankie Boyle for making racist jokes and ridiculing the disabled.

Boyle has caused fury by using the most offensive words to describe black and Asian people in his television routines, as well as abhorrent comments about those with physical and mental health problems.

'There is also growing fury that Channel 4 executives allowed the comedian to use two of the most racially offensive terms in the English language during his show Tramadol Nights.

"Norse mythology gets a multi-cultural remake in the upcoming movie titled “Thor,” by Marvel studios. It’s not enough that Marvel attacks conservative values and promotes the left-wing, now mythological Gods must be re-invented with black skin.

It seems that Marvel Studios believes that white people should have nothing that is unique to themselves. An upcoming movie, based on the comic book Thor, will give Norse mythology an insulting multi-cultural make-over. One of the Gods will be played by Hip Hop DJ Idris Elba.

A black Nordic God is certainly a strange idea but nobody is allowed to say so apparently. You get called a "white supremacist" if you do. A brief summary of some of the outrage here

There seems to be particular rage over the fact that the conservative group called for a boycott of the film. Leftists are always trying to mount boycotts of people and firms that they do not like but conservatives are not allowed to do likewise, apparently.

As far as I am concerned, I would be glad of the information that the film is badly cast and would not go to see it on those grounds -- if I was into that sort of thing

By all their wailing and shrieking the Left have certainly seen to it that the boycott call is widely publicized -- which is amusing.

Friday, December 24, 2010

"The principal of a public school in Brookline, Mass., is asking parents to fill out permission slips before their children can participate in a weekly recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Gerardo Martinez, the principal of The Devotion School, informed parents that the school would begin reciting the pledge in January over the public address system.

Attached to the letter was a form that asked parents to check either: 'Yes, my child will participate in the weekly Pledge of Allegiance' or 'No, my child will not participate in the weekly Pledge of Allegiance.'"

"It's actually not a permission slip," said Superintendent Bill Lupini, in an interview with Fox News Radio. "There's no intent this was a permission form." Lupini said students will not be forced to recite the pledge, regardless of a parent's wishes...

An attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Boston also had some concerns about the situation. Sarah Wunsch told the newspaper the permission slips were "really strange." "It suggests that this is a decision for parents alone," she said, noting that children don't lose their right of expression once they walk into a school building.

"I want to say one thing about the budget that didn’t get passed, the omnibus bill. You know, we talk a lot about – we just passed this huge tax cut in part because business said, you know, we have to plan, we have to know what kind of tax cuts we have. Well, these agencies, including the Defense Department, don't know how much money they've got and for what.

And I was at – forgive the expression – a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this," NPR's Totenberg said on PBS this weekend.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Conservatives Plan Countermeasures to Neutralize FCC Internet Edict

We read:

"Following the Federal Communications Commission’s party-line adoption of a new internet regulatory scheme, conservatives are already plotting to challenge and oppose implementation of the new policy at every turn. Critics say the still-unpublished “net neutrality” regulations mark an unprecedented federal intrusion into the realm of internet operation. They’re condemning the three Democratic commissioners who supported the measure for imposing a draconian solution to a non-existent problem. In the aftermath of Tuesday’s 3-2 FCC vote, Republican members of the House and Senate are preparing to file bills to thwart the new FCC rules, and conservative activists are gearing up for a major fight.

“On January 5, I will re-file a bill to prohibit the FCC from implementing these rules and regulations,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn). “We, as members of Congress should control [the process of internet regulation] if we decide it’s necessary. There is strong bipartisan agreement on that point.” Blackburn said she expects a Senate companion bill, authored by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), to address the issue in the upper chamber. “I look at this as the Fairness Doctrine of the internet,” she warned, “the FCC would be in a position to make determinations of online priorities and value. We will vigorously oppose [today’s FCC vote] because it’s a hysterical reaction to a hypothetical problem.”

Blackburn said swiftly cutting the FCC’s recent maneuver off at the knees would send an important message to the agency that internet regulation is beyond its jurisdiction. “They’ve done this during the week of Christmas, when they think people aren’t watching. We are watching, and we don’t want to give them even a toehold on internet regulation because once they have one, they’ll look to expand it,” she said. Blackburn pointed to internet taxation and content micromanagement as potential future FCC abuses if Tuesday’s move is permitted to stand.

"Some teachers may find Corbin Barber’s bracelets provocative, but Granite School District and the American Civil Liberties Union agree he has the right to wear them at Hunter High.

As part of a national breast cancer awareness campaign aimed at youth, rubber wrist bands emblazoned with that message have become trendy teen wear. Sales of the brightly colored bracelets raise money for the Keep A Breast Foundation, a California-based nonprofit that funds research and education programs. The group sees the accessories as conversation starters, using language that dispels some of the scariness associated with cancer.

“Wearing these is going to help people be more open about it,” says Barber, a 17-year-old senior at Hunter High. Near the time that his own aunt was recovering from breast cancer, Barber spotted the bracelets at Valley Fair Mall. He bought nine of the $4 bands so he could share with friends.

But Barber and other Hunter High students were dismayed when some teachers insisted the bracelets be removed.

The slogan has raised eyebrows on more than one school campus. In Pennsylvania, two middle school girls, represented by the ACLU, are suing the Easton Area School District after they were suspended for wearing the wrist bands.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

"The LDS Church has made subtle — but significant — changes to chapter headings in its online version of the faith’s signature scripture, The Book of Mormon, toning down some earlier racial allusions.

The words “skin of blackness” were removed from the introductory italicized summary in 2 Nephi, Chapter 5, in describing the “curse” God put on disbelieving Lamanites.

Deeper into the volume, in Mormon, Chapter 5, the heading changes from calling Lamanites “a dark, filthy, and loathsome people” to “because of their unbelief, the Lamanites will be scattered, and the Spirit will cease to strive with them.”

In both cases, the text itself remains unchanged.

Chapter summaries were added in the 1920s, then rewritten by the late LDS apostle Bruce R. McConkie in 1981. That same year, a verse that used “white and delightsome” to describe what will happen to dark-skinned peoples when they repent was changed to “pure and delightsome.”

"An Air New Zealand ad offering fares "lower than grandma's boobs" has been pulled after a campaign by outraged locals. The billboard, advertising Air New Zealand's cheap seat website Grabaseat, appeared in Nelson, New Zealand.

Local Jacquetta Bell deemed the slogan "sexist" and "offensive" and started an email campaign against the website.

Grabaseat manager Duane Perrott said the slogan had come from a competition winner in Wellington, whose grandmother lives in Nelson. "What this person thought was funny, as did many others, clearly didn't resonate with some individuals today, and Grabaseat will be removing the billboard shortly," Mr Perrott told the Nelson Mail. "We apologise if any offence was caused."

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Feds Force Bank To Remove Christmas Decorations

We read:

"A small-town bank in Oklahoma said the Federal Reserve won’t let it keep religious signs and symbols on display.

Federal Reserve examiners come every four years to make sure banks are complying with a long list of regulations. The examiners came to Perkins last week. And the team from Kansas City deemed a Bible verse of the day, crosses on the teller’s counter and buttons that say “Merry Christmas, God With Us.” were inappropriate. The Bible verse of the day on the bank’s Internet site also had to be taken down.

Specifically, the feds believed, the symbols violated the discouragement clause of Regulation B of the bank regulations. According to the clause, “…the use of words, symbols, models and other forms of communication … express, imply or suggest a discriminatory preference or policy of exclusion.”

The feds interpret that to mean, for example, a Jew or Muslin or atheist may be offended and believe they may be discriminated against at this bank. It is an appearance of discrimination.

The bank is quietly fighting for a clearer interpretation of the clause. Officials have contacted their two U.S. legislators, Rep. Frank Lucas and Sen. Jim Inhofe, and the Oklahoma Bankers Association to help.

There is nothing about Christmas that "excludes" anybody. Anyone can celebrate it. It is in fact quite popular in Communist China and Shinto/Buddhist Japan. And below is a comment about Christmas in India:

"A sizeable population of the Christian Community reside in Mumbai of the Indian state of Maharashtra and are mainly Roman Catholics. It is a delight to watch their homes during Christmas. Every Christian home creates a nativity scene, often display a manger in the front window. Giant star-shaped paper lanterns are hung between the houses so that the stars float above you as you walk down the road. There is a provision of sweets, mainly home-made, in every household to welcome visitors during the occassion.

In Southern states, Christians often light small clay oil lamps and place these on the flat roofs of their homes to show that Jesus is the light of the world.

In the North-western states of India, the tribal Christians of the Bhil folk take out caroling processions during the whole Christmas week and often visit neighbouring villages to tell the Christmas story to people through songs".

The channel, which featured videos of Palestinian incitement against Jews and Israelis, posted by the group in order to expose Arab media undercurrents, was removed for repeatedly airing hate speech.

PMW director Itamar Marcus said he had received an automatically generated letter from YouTube informing him that the channel had been removed following complaints by YouTube users. "YouTube has removed some of our videos in the past, but closing down the site is a tremendous disservice," said Marcus.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Reporters told: Don't say 'illegal immigrant'

We read:

"A diversity plan from a group of journalists says reporters should not be using the term "illegal aliens" because it is not constitutional.

"Frequent use of the phrases 'illegal immigrant' and 'illegal alien' by our mainstream media is being questioned in order to remain faithful to the principles of our U.S. Constitution," Leo Laurence wrote in the "Diversity Toolbox" column on the website for the Quill, which is produced by the Society of Professional Journalists.

He said the organization's "Diversity Committee" met during its 2010 convention in Las Vegas and "decided to engage in a yearlong educational campaign designed to inform and sensitize journalists as to the best language to use when writing and reporting on undocumented immigrants."

"According to the account of the facts the teacher was explaining the different climates in a geography class and cited the village of Trevelez due to its cold and dry climate. According to the newspaper account, ”as a story, the teacher told his students that such a climate was conducive to making hams (this refers to the procedure that it’s necessary between the pig is killed and the ham is actually ready to be eaten). Then the student asked the teacher not to speak of hams since it offended him, because he was a Muslim

The teacher told the students that in his classes, he did not consider the religion of their students, but apparently the family did not stay at home when they learned the facts, to the extent that they went to the National Police to file a complaint without speaking in advance with the teacher

According to El Diario de Cádiz, the teacher “ is accused of being the author of an alleged crime of abuse of workers, also alleging racist and xenophobic motives

"A poster hung at a train station that featured a ticket inspector with a red armband and Hitler moustache has been slammed.

Andy Morley was commissioned by Nexus, the owners of Newcastle's underground transport system, to produce a light-hearted graffiti board at Chillingham Road Metro station over Christmas to remind travellers to buy a ticket.

But the German bosses of the Metro network have failed to see the funny side of the artwork. The German bosses of underground owners, Nexus, complained the 'light-hearted graffiti board' was distasteful

The design Andy created featured three grumpy inspectors, one with a small Hitler moustache and red armband, accompanied by the slogan 'Santa is coming to town and he better have a ticket'. Just two days after its unveiling, it was taken down.

Andy, 42, of Denton Burn, Newcastle, who collaborated with fellow artist John Dyer, said: 'It was only poking fun at inspectors by comparing them to 'little Hitlers'.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Even elected politicians must not tell the truth about Islam in Denmark

We read:

"Here is what Jesper Langballe wrote that merited prosecution under the Danish penal code:

"Of course Lars Hedegaard should not have said that there are Muslim fathers who rape their daughters when the truth appears to be that they make do with killing their daughters (the so-called honour killings) and leave it to their uncles to rape them."

On December 3, 2010 the municipal court in Randers, Denmark found the Danish Member of Parliament Jesper Langballe (Danish People's Party) guilty of hate speech under Article 266b of the Danish penal code.

In accordance with Danish legal precedent he was denied the opportunity to prove his allegation that honour killings and sexual abuse take place in Muslim families. Under Danish jurisprudence it is immaterial whether a statement is true or untrue. All that is needed for a conviction is that somebody feels offended.

"With this article in the penal code," commented Mr. Langballe, "I must be assumed convicted in advance. I have no intention of participating in this circus. Therefore I confess."

Mr. Langballe was sentenced to a fine of DKK 5,000 (approximately $1000) or ten days in jail.

Students suspended for 'boobies bracelets' take fight to federal court

This issue is still rumbling on:

"Two Pennsylvania school students testified in a federal court that they defied a school district ban on "I (heart) Boobies!" bracelets because they were proudly standing up for breast cancer awareness.

"I think the school took the meaning of the bracelets out of context," said Brianna Hawk, 13, one of two girls suspended in October for wearing the bracelets.

Hawk and Kayla Martinez, 12, who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, both said on the stand that they use "boobies" at home to refer to breasts and consider the word harmless slang.

Attorneys for the Easton Area School District argue that the word "boobies," specifically when used in the phrase "I (heart) Boobies!," is lewd, vulgar and has no place in a middle school. Administrators enacted a ban based on the district dress code.

The purpose of the hearing was for US District Judge Mary A. McLaughlin to decide whether to temporarily overturn the district's bracelet ban as the case continues. Her decision could also send a signal to other school districts across the United States that have enacted similar bans.

The Easton district, north of Philadelphia, argues in court filings that the bracelets caused middle school boys to make inappropriate comments toward girls. In one case, it writes, a boy inappropriately touched a girl. [How awful!]

"Used to be "racist" was used by a person who hated another person because of that person's race. Now the word simply means, "You're not being politically correct."

Same with "terrorist." Remember the good old days when "terrorist" referred to vicious men with box cutters flying airplanes into buildings and murdering a couple thousand people? Now "Terrorist" has been cheapened to mean, "You're not being politically correct."

During the recent We Won't Fly demonstration at DFW an airport employee implied that protesting the TSA full body scanners was helping the terrorists. "If there's so much fuss about them, you know the terrorists don't want them," she told libertarian activist Justin Oliver. Meaning, apparently, that standing up for one's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches makes one a terrorist-lover.

In April a Houston TV station reported that a math teacher accused a 13-year-old girl of making "terroristic threats" after pointing her finger in the teacher's direction and saying "bang" while playing cops & robbers with other kids.

Julian Assange is a "terrorist" for simply pulling back the curtain of lies and revealing America's political wizards as the deceitful manipulators that they are.

Of course all bomb threats should be taken seriously. But let's also get over the ludicrous misuse of race and terrorist baiting.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Exactly how does Federal defense of the practices of one religion jibe with the alleged "separation between church and state" that liberals routinely claim to find in the 1st Amendment?

"The federal government sued a suburban Chicago school district Monday for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion.

In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley, Ill., denied the request of Safoorah Khan on grounds that her requested leave was unrelated to her professional duties and was not set forth in the contract between the school district and the teachers union. In doing so the school district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably accommodate her religious practices, the government said.

Khan wanted to perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia which every adult Muslim is supposed to make at least once in a lifetime if they are physically and financially able to. Millions go each year.

"Santa's out and swear words are in at national retail clothing chain Cotton On. You may get a lump of coal in your stocking for sending out the store's Christmas cards, which feature the slogans "Merry F---ing Christmas" and "Happy Christmas D---head".

The national clothing chain is selling the cards as part of the franchise's Typo stationery range, with a 10-pack selling for $5, the Geelong Advertiser reports. Wrapping paper emblazoned with similar slogans is also available in-store.

Religious leaders are unimpressed with the naughty cards, with Waterfront Christian Church pastor Jim McClure questioning the company's intentions. "I think it sounds like the store is trying to make a point against Christmas, and I'd really like to know who's behind it.

Remarks deemed insulting to people from Northern England. It is true that people in the Home Counties (S.E. England) tend to look down on people from "North of Watford" and that is apparently what has caused the fuss. Although just about everybody in the S.E. thinks it, you must not even hint at it in public.

The S.E. is generally prosperous and tends to vote Tory. The North is heavily welfare-dependent and tends to vote Labour.

There was once a lot of industry in the North but incessant strikes and go-slows by the workers destroyed most of it. So many Northerners now sit at home and watch TV while being supported by the taxes of the prosperous S.E. You can imagine what people in the S.E. think of that.

"David Shakespeare, leader of the Conservative group on the Local Government Association (LGA), told colleagues that people from the north may “replace the Romanians in the cherry orchards”.

During an LGA Executive discussion on ways to respond to an expected rise in unemployment in less well off parts of the country, he added that it “may be a good thing” if eastern European economic migrants were replaced by those from the north.

Mr Shakespeare is the leader of Buckinghamshire County Council, where he has served for 29 years, and was awarded an OBE.

His words, during a discussion on whether underprivileged areas would suffer from plans to redistribute business rates, were described as “horrible” by fellow councillors at the meeting, and drew angry criticism from Labour MPs.

Michael Dugher, who represents Barnsley East, wrote to David Cameron to urge him to condemn Mr Shakespeare. The letter said: “Do you appreciate how out of touch, insensitive and insulting these comments are? Doesn’t it just demonstrate that the Tories are still the same old nasty party? “Will you publicly condemn and dissociate yourself from these outrageous remarks?

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

"Racist" cupcakes?

We read:

"Bakery goods maker Duncan Hines has decided to open up its marketing doors to just about anyone these days. In their new website and YouTube promotion they’re giving various artists and directors the chance to create Duncan Hines commercials which will be promoted and sent out online. If their first ad is any indicator I won’t be buying Duncan Hines products for a long time.

The first ad, by director Josh Binder, is called “Hip-Hop Cupcakes" and features a bunch of plain cupcakes that suddenly start to sing and beat-box once the chocolate glaze is poured on top of them…. That’s right. Chocolate glaze makes the cupcakes rap-stars. The problems with this ad are almost too numerous to point out ....

Finally the racial component can’t be overlooked. It doesn’t matter that they’re cupcakes; the fact that they start rapping isn’t too far a stretch from making them in blackface. If the icing was in different flavors, or the lips weren’t so big and pink maybe we could give the ad a pass, but as it stands it’s a pretty poorly constructed and potentially racist

"What’s a tweet, between friends? The law says sometimes it’s a threat. One man thought he was just bantering with his pals when he joked about blowing an airport sky-high. Another was reacting to a radio phone-in when he mused about stoning a journalist to death.

Because they made their throwaway comments on Twitter, both are in legal trouble. Their cases have outraged civil libertarians and inflamed debate about the limits of free speech in a Web 2.0 world.

The Internet makes private jokes, tastes, and opinions available for public consumption, blurring the line between public and private in a way that has left the law gasping to keep up.”

Monday, December 13, 2010

More hate speech against Israel from Canada -- from yet another nutty antisemitic Jew

Karl Marx was of Jewish descent but in his article Zur Judenfrage he sounds every bit as antisemitic as old Adolf. So antisemitic Jews go back a long way on the extreme Left. Their extreme Leftism (insane hatred of everything around them) causes them to hate their own origins. Hate speech indeed!

"The University of Toronto is being criticized by Jewish groups, a prominent historian and Holocaust survivors for accepting a master’s thesis that calls two Holocaust education programs “racist.”

The thesis, titled “The Victimhood of the Powerful: White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education,” was written by Jenny Peto, a Jewish activist with the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid. It denounces the March of Remembrance and Hope, for which young adults of diverse backgrounds travel with Holocaust survivors to sites of Nazi atrocities in Poland, and March of the Living Canada, which takes young Jews with survivors to Poland and Israel.

Peto argues that the two programs cause Jews to falsely believe they are innocent victims. In reality, she writes, they are privileged white people who “cannot see their own racism.” The “construction of a victimized Jewish identity,” she argues, is intentional: It produces “effects that are extremely beneficial to the organized Jewish community” and to “apartheid” Israel.

Peto contends that “Zionist politics” are hidden behind the “liberal-sounding goals” of the March of Remembrance and Hope. She writes that there are “questions about the implications of white Jews taking it upon themselves to educate people of colour about genocide, racism and intolerance.”

The program, however, is not run by a Jewish group. Its parent organization is the Canadian Centre for Diversity, which teaches young people to fight discrimination.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

You are only allowed to criticize SOME things in Canada

The USA, Israel, Christians, Jews, conservatives -- That's about it.

"On Dec. 1, it was reported that 17-year-old Emil Cohen of Northern Secondary School in Toronto gave a speech at an athletic assembly and criticized the school's shoddy treatment of the soccer team. A teacher drowned out his speech with music before he could finish and he was subsequently suspended for two days and banned from athletic events.

Hey Emil, I hate to be a grinch, but if you plan on attending university then get used to it.

Allow me to elaborate. Last March, American author and Conservative pundit Ann Coulter was scheduled to give a speech at the University of Ottawa when she received a letter from Francois Houle, the university's vice president and provost, warning her of Canada's hate speech legislation. Her visit was all for naught, as a bunch of obnoxious loud-mouth lefties had police quaking in their boots (yet again) and the speech was cancelled.

A month later, a Canadian human rights group accused the university of "spying," when Burmese human rights activist Ka Has Wa gave a speech in 2007 that was monitored by university officials.

Also in April at the University of Calgary, eight students were accused on "non-academic misconduct" and found guilty of a "major violation" for erecting a graphic anti-abortion display on campus.

Not to be outdone, in November the Carleton University Student Association (CUSA) banned the pro-life club from operating on campus. CUSA said the group could regain its official status if it renounced its beliefs. I'm not making this up.

Then in November at the University of Waterloo Christie Blatchford had a scheduled speech to discuss her new book, Helpless -Caledonia's Nightmare of Fear and Anarchy and How the Law Failed All of Us, but the event was cancelled after five morons chained themselves to the podium with bicycle locks while chanting "racist, racist, racist," repeatedly. Instead of arresting them and hauling them off to jail, police stood around like potted plants waiting to be watered.

The spokesman for the group, Dan Kellar, dismissed the audience as "old white men" and "old white ladies." Isn't it funny how anti-racists demonize people not only on their skin colour but on their age, too? How multidimensional.

Still, none compares to York University when it comes to the suppression of political views. It's a virtual cesspool of censorship. In February, Daniel Pipes, an American scholar on the Middle East, had a speech cancelled. Yet, in early November, George Galloway, a former British MP infamous for his support of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbolloah, appeared at York U. with nary an interruption. Actually, there was a slight interruption when York's president threatened to sue a rabbi who had encouraged people not to attend the lecture.

The school had previously embarrassed itself when it cancelled planned speeches by Ehud Barak and Benjamin Netanyahu. Which isn't surprising, given York U hosts the annual Israeli Apartheid Week, an odious and vile hatefest of anti-Semitism.

Warmists can't stand any crack in their media monopoly -- so they are furious that Australia's national broadsheet (a Murdoch publication) does sometimes let some skeptical light shine on climate matters

"There’s a media war going on here in Australia. At stake is free speech — but the discussion about it is completely disguised and parades instead as a debate about “balance” in science reporting.

It’s reached the point where our national masthead ["The Australian" newspaper] felt the need to issue a whole feature article rebutting their critics (Climate debate is no place for hotheads) which includes quote after quote of The Australian’s pro man-made-global-warming editorials.

But why under the Goddess of Free Press should any serious newspaper feel required to declare their belief in a particular scientific theory?

The Australian has been taking heat from the rest of the Australian media (notably Fairfax and ABC employees, and a couple of book writing academics). It’s not that The Australian has held back on publishing the illogical, unreasonable PR, and baseless posturing of vested-carbon-scare-interests, no sir. They are just as ready as anyone to publish the unscientific Lomborgs, Orsekes, and Hamilton’s.

The real issue at stake is censorship. The rest of the media thinks The Australian should do more of it. They disparage The Australian in scathing terms, not for what it won’t publish, but because it does not shield the dumb punters enough. The Australian commits the sin of giving some column space to people who don’t hold UN-approved-views.

So the climate-establishment and their willing minions crave censorship — and why wouldn’t they, they’re practical people. They know that if skeptical writers were allowed to publicize their opinions along side the professors who keep spouting logical errors and baseless insults, then the grand facade of the carbon scare would be cremated by Christmas, captured in comedy by New Year, and forgotten by Australia Day.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

"Hate speech" to say "no new taxes"?

We read:

"Chris Christie, New Jersey's combative GOP governor, has become a nationwide YouTube sensation with posts showing him hurling verbal "truth bombs" at town hall meetings attended by citizens upset with his policies. But local opponents back home are now trying to use such incidents as evidence that the governor is a "bully" engaged in "hate speech."

The latest "Christie Moment" came last week at a town hall attended by some 250 people in Parsippany. Kevin Chaudruc, a public school teacher, launched into a lengthy list of complaints about the governor, culminating in a question about how Mr. Christie could have vetoed a tax hike on millionaires while low-income people saw their transit fares rise.

After several minutes of back and forth, Mr. Chaudruc interrupted the governor. "You want to come up here?" was Mr. Christie's reaction. "You come up here ... Let's have a conversation." Mr. Chaudruc was initially reluctant to step up on the stage, but the governor said "bring him up here," and a state trooper did.

"Your wonderful increase in taxes would have killed jobs in this state," Mr. Christie said with his index finger wagging. "You and I have different ideas of what being a Republican is all about because I'm not going to raise taxes." Mr. Chaudric wanted to respond but was escorted off the stage by the trooper. "It's his playground; he holds the ball," was Mr. Chaudric's reaction to reporters afterward.

Hate speech? More like a frank and candid exchange. The governor is certainly guilty of using Mr. Chaudric as a prop for his campaign against public employee unions. But his opponents have seized on the incident as evidence of some authoritarian complex. The Newark Star-Ledger, the state's largest paper, editorialized that no matter how important or humble you are, if you criticize the governor he "will try to humiliate you publicly." It went on to say that "his combativeness is counterproductive and breeds the kind of hate speech that plaques the nation."

Hate speech? A frank and candid exchange, yes. A little theatrical? Perhaps. But equating the governor's "I calls it as I sees it" style with encouraging hate speech is nonsense.

"Helmut G. was busy on Friday afternoon, mowing his grass. “And because I was just in such a good mood, I yodeled along with it and sang a few songs,” says the retiree, speaking to the Styrian Crown. That was not all right with his neighbors — believing Muslims. They had gathered in their house at prayer hour, which was also broadcast into their yard by loudspeaker.

Consequently, several of them felt disturbed in their religious exercises by the grass-mowing 63-year old — and promptly reported him to the police. “In the statement it said that my yodeling sounded like the call of the muezzin,” Helmut G. shook his head, bewildered. “It was definitely not my intention to imitate him,” the Graz native assures us.

The court did not believe him and sentenced him to a fat fine. On Friday, the correlating confirmation trickled in. Helmut G.: “The Muslims pay no attention to any rules. We neighbors constantly have problems…”

Friday, December 10, 2010

TN: ACLU warns schools about holiday activities

We read:

"The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee has warned school officials across the state about holiday celebrations.

In a letter to the 137 public school superintendents, the group reminded them that holiday celebrations focusing primarily on one religious holiday [That wouldn't be Christmas, would it?] amount to a school's unconstitutional endorsement of religion.

The ACLU said in a news release that it was responding to numerous complaints from families about such school activities.

Hedy Weinberg, ACLU executive director in Tennessee, said it is especially important for people to embrace the constitutional guarantees of the First Amendment in order to ensure that religious freedom flourishes.

I had a Golliwog myself when I was a little kid. They were always popular in Australia and Britain as a child's soft toy. The explanation of their origin given below is absurd. See my previous post on the matter

"A Melbourne doll shop has withdrawn a golliwog from its display to avoid offending the Oprah Winfrey roadshow. The store removed the "Mamee" washer woman dolls after a visit by Oprah's production company.

But the Dafel Dolls and Bears shop in Block Arcade - where 110 of Oprah's guests will attend a cocktail party tomorrow night - will continue to display other golliwogs. Golliwogs are deeply offensive to Americans because of their perceived links to slavery and racism.

The store owner declined to comment because she had signed a confidentiality agreement with Harpo productions, but confirmed a meeting had taken place. "Oprah's people came ... and yes it was discussed," a source familiar with the agreement told the Herald Sun. "As a result, they won't have that particular doll on display. But there will be plenty of other gollies when they come through."

The golliwogs still on display at Dafel's have an explanatory note on the origins of the black dolls, a throwback to the toys enjoyed by Egyptian children when British troops occupied the country in the late 1800s.

Dafel's has sold dolls and toys, including golliwogs, in the Block Arcade since 1945.

Last year Australia faced international condemnation when American singer Harry Connick Jr expressed his shock at Hey Hey It's Saturday for broadcasting a minstrel sketch and asking him to judge the performance. [LOL!]

UK publishing company Macdonalds, which put out the Noddy books featuring a gang of golliwogs, decided in 1987 the dolls were racially derogatory.

But golliwog defenders say they have nothing to do with racism and are seen by children as just bright and friendly dolls.

A spokeswoman for Oprah's Ultimate Adventure declined to comment on the Block Arcade golliwogs.

The talk show queen jetted into Cairns and then on to Hamilton Island yesterday on the first leg of her Oprah Down Under tour.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

End the FCC

We read:

"As if individual liberty were not sufficiently under assault already, a runaway government agency, whose very existence is not sanctioned by Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution —which lists those few activities in which government is legally permitted to engage— is trying to carry off a Fascist coup d'etat against the First Amendment freedoms afforded to Americans by the Internet.

That runaway agency is the Federal Communications Commission.

In the spirit of the first fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, a spirit that we've become all too accustomed to with the outlaw Obama Administration, without legislative support of any kind, without the Constitutional amendment that it would actually require, without anything even remotely resembling due process, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has announced that his rogue agency will seize control of the Internet whether the people and the law support his actions or not.

Not surprisingly, in the tradition of another Mussolini admirer, Huey Long, would-be fascist dictator of Louisiana, Genachowski is claiming that this takeover will guarantee freedom, rather than suppress it. The same claim has been made by and about the FCC for decades as it savagely stifled dissent and all but destroyed artistic freedom.

No nation with a First Amendment in its Constitution should suffer an agency like the FCC to exist. First established in 1934 (replacing William Howard Taft's illegal Radio Act of 1912 and Calvin Coolidge's Federal Radio Commission of 1926) to consolidate absolute government control over radio communications in the wake of World War I and in the face of clear First Amendment prohibitions, it represents a job that we of the freedom movement have foolishly left unfinished, to the detriment and extreme risk of everything we would consider truly American.

"Santa Claus has been canned from Macy's, and he's anything but jolly about it. His fans aren't happy, either. And there are many.

John Toomey, known for 20 years at the Union Square Macy's in San Francisco as "Santa John," was told Saturday he'll have to take his "ho, ho, hos" elsewhere because an adult couple complained about a joke he cracked.

The joke has been in his Santa bag for decades. But after thousands of tellings, the 68-year-old retired caretaker for the elderly finally hit the wrong recipients - apparently an older woman and her husband, who considered it inappropriate.

Toomey - who stays in Oroville most summers and winters in San Francisco while he does the kiddie-on-the-knee gig - said he'd never had complaints before about the joke, which he saves for the occasional grown-up who visits him.

"When I ask the older people who sit on my lap if they've been good and they say, 'Yes,' I say, 'Gee, that's too bad,' " Toomey said Monday. "Then, if they ask why Santa is so jolly, I joke that it's because I know where all the naughty boys and girls live."

The kids who sit on his lap, he said, get only his trademark laugh and questions about what toys they want.

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Iraq: US military tries to intimidate soldiers into not reading Wikileaks

There's always been military censorship but this is quite mad

"U.S. soldiers in Iraq who try to read about the Wikileaks disclosures—or read coverage of them in mainstream news sites— on unclassified networks -- get a page warning them that they're about to break the law.

The federal government seems to have lost its mind in a manic game of internet whack-a-mole aimed at getting the Wikileaks State Department cables thrown down the memory hole: First, Sen. Joe Lieberman successfully nudged Amazon into kicking the site off its servers. Then the Library of Congress blocked the site for all employees and users of its computer terminals. Now we learn that the State Department is warning prospective hires that if they write about Wikileaks on Twitter or Facebook, they might not get that job.

The feds have clearly lost it. Many of those soldiers receiving the warnings have security clearances that would have granted them access to the State Department cables before they were leaked.

"Coach Greg Walsh pulled his Peterborough minor league hockey team off the ice after an opposing player hurled a racial slur at one of his teenaged team members and no one apologized.

Two weeks later, Walsh is watching his house league team from the stands while he serves an indefinite suspension from the Ontario Minor Hockey Association (OMHA). Meanwhile, the player who used the taunt and his two coaches received three-day penalties and are playing again.

Because of a Hockey Canada rule on “refusing to start play,” Walsh could be barred from coaching for up to a year.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

"The International Free Press Society sponsored a conference today in Copenhagen. Below is the speech that was given during the event by Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff:

"Freedom of speech is under attack today here in Denmark, as it is in my own country Austria, and indeed all across Europe. Today, in 21st century Western Europe, our right to free speech is being shut down quietly and systematically with an effectiveness that the commissars in the old Soviet Union could only dream of.

A milestone in this ominous totalitarian trend will be reached tomorrow, 28 November 2010, when the member states of the European Union are required to implement an innocuous-sounding legal provision known as the “Framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia”, or, more fully, the “Council Framework Decision 2008/913/JHA of 28 November 2008 on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law.” According to the final article of the Framework Decision, “Member States shall take the necessary measures to comply with the provisions of this Framework Decision by 28 November 2010.”

Why does this matter to the cause of free speech in Europe?

If you read the full text of the Framework Decision (which may be found in the legislative section of the EU’s website), you will learn that “Each Member State shall take the measures necessary… to ensure that the following intentional conduct is punishable.” Such “intentional conduct” includes “conduct which is a pretext for directing acts against a group of persons or a member of such a group defined by reference to race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin.”

Based on what has recently happened to Geert Wilders and me — and earlier to Gregorius Nekschot, Jussi Halla-aho, and numerous others — we can all guess who will be punished under this provision of the Framework Decision: those who criticize Islam.

Even worse, a complaint made by a member state does not have to be “dependent on a report or an accusation made by a victim of the conduct”, nor does the alleged offender have to be “physically present in its territory”.

In other words, if the dhimmi Austrian government objects to a cartoon published by Kurt Westergaard here in Denmark, Mr. Westergaard may be extradited by the Austrian Ministry of Justice to answer to hate speech charges in Austria. The European Arrest Warrant guarantees that the Danish government cannot legally interfere with such an extradition, and the 800-strong “European Gendarmerie Force” would be available to fetch Mr. Westergaard out of his bed and bring him to Vienna — with impunity.

As most of you already know, nearly a year ago I was made aware that “hate speech” charges might be filed against me — I had “denigrated religious teachings” by giving one of my public lectures on Islam.

But my case is not really about the law. It is a political trial, and like the trials of Geert Wilders and Jussi Halla-aho, it is intended to silence someone who speaks out against the barbaric nature of sharia law.

Human rights groups had filed a suit against the 81-year-old Le Pen, currently a deputy in the European Parliament, accusing him of religious incitement over a campaign poster of his National Front (FN) party last March.

The poster bore the message 'no to Islamism' and depicted a fully- veiled woman in front of a map of France, the Algerian national flag, and a missile resembling a minaret.

At the time, a court in Marseille, acting on complaints, ordered the posters to be removed.

In a hearing on October 28, prosecutors demanded a one-year suspension of Le Pen's right stand for election, a two-month suspended jail term and a fine of 20,000 euros (27,000 dollars).

Le Pen's defence argued successfully in court that the poster was not directed against Islam as a whole, but rather Islamism and that the suit had wrongly targeted him, instead of the FN.

Monday, December 06, 2010

More Democrat hate speech -- GOP are terrorists

But a guy named after Mohammed thinks it's OK, funnily enough!

"Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on Friday compared the tax-cut fight with Republicans to negotiating with terrorists, while Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri suggested Americans might need to “take up pitchforks" if Congress renews tax breaks for the wealthy.

“Do you allow yourself to be held hostage and get something done for the sake of getting something done, when in fact it might be perverse in its ultimate results?” Menendez said, when asked whether he and other Democrats would compromise with Republicans. “It’s almost like the question of do you negotiate with terrorists.”

A Menendez aide said the senator was talking about the Republicans' negotiating strategy and was not comparing Republicans to terrorists.

"This shouldn’t be taken out of context from the full question and answer," Menendez spokesman Afshin Mohamadi wrote in an e-mail.

"Apple has pulled the Manhattan Declaration app from its App Store, apparently in response to customer complaints that the declaration amounts to hate speech. Is this part of a broader trend? See, for example, the Southern Poverty Law Center's recent report, "18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda," in which the National Organization for Marriage is included as one of "a hard core of smaller groups, most of them religiously motivated, [which] have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities."

To be clear, I do consider some of the rhetoric employed in opposition to SSM to amount to hate speech (under virtually any imaginable definition of "hate speech"), but I fear that we're approaching the point where opposition to SSM itself is considered hate speech, regardless of the rhetoric employed.

Apple is entitled to sell what it wants from its shop but the fact that a large business like Apple can be persuaded to cease making Christian views available is ominous.

The app was dropped in response to a petition from Leftists but a counter petition to reinstate it is already up. Since the "counter" petition has already got many more signatures than the original, it will be interesting to see what happens. If nothing happens, Christians might well get the word out to boycott Apple. There are plenty of rival products to Apple's gadgets.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Radical Muslims aren’t alone

We read:

"So it turns out that contrary to widespread impression, the American government is just as willing to step all over people’s right to free expressions as are governments in what are deemed more tyrannical countries.

News has it that the Washington based Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery “is removing a video after complaints from a Catholic group that the images were sacrilegious.” A video by the artist David Wojnarowicz is supposed to be “hate speech,” according to Catholic League President Bill Donohue. The video depicted a swarm of ants crawling on a crucified Christ figure. He contended that it was meant to insult Christians and this warranted its being removed–that is, banned...

And certainly what the Gallery did, however much it had logic on its side, doesn’t differ very much from what radical Muslims did when those Danish newspapers published cartoons in which the founder of Islam was ridiculed.

Trying to impose Christian values on non-Christians was once rather common (Sunday laws etc.) but thankfully has now mostly faded away.

Still, If Muslims are to have their sensitivities protected -- which is now common -- surely Christians are entitled to the same treatment.

As a libertarian, I would wish that both Christian and Islamic censorship were disallowed but we don't live in a perfect world. Mainly under Muslim and Leftist influence, censorship seems in fact to be getting more prevalent. A slippery slope is in operation, I think.

Flier for "White Student Union" Kicks Up Controversy at West Chester University‏

Of course blacks are allowed to have their own exclusive groups and clubs, however if a white person wants one at a school, they are labelled an evil racist, and schools back this kind of double standard

"Controversy is brewing at Pennsylvania's West Chester University after students posted flyers on campus announcing the formation of a “White Student Union.”

No one showed up to the group’s first gathering Thursday after school officials who investigated the fliers sent a campus-wide e-mail stating that "there is no White Student Union at West Chester University, and there is no meeting,” local paper the Daily Local reported.

University spokeswoman Pam Sheridan said the fliers were part of an effort to organize people those are who against racism and are not the seeds of a racist organization.

Still some students are taking issue with the fliers while others are taking issue with the backlash over them.

Several students told the Daily Local they felt the fliers were done in poor taste. "In my opinion, it seems like it's mocking the Black Student Union," Briana Rollerson, a freshman and member of the Black Student Union, told the paper.

But others say the students’ backlash over a proposed White Student Union when the school has a Black Student Union is hypocritical.

West Chester University has roughly 14,000 students. About 85 percent are white.

Saturday, December 04, 2010

"If you are at all concerned about government intimidation of its own citizens, you’ll want to keep your eye on Charlestown city government.

Charlestown, by way of the Board of Public Works, recently threatened to sue Citizens for Better Government, a local organization that placed an advertisement in a local weekly paper, The Leader.

This ad listed several points about manganese in water systems. After a few minutes on Google, I found a lot of information about manganese and, like many things humans ingest these days, opinions differ on what is considered safe. Just the fact that the effects of manganese are still being studied is enough to merit this as a valid topic to bring to people.

But Charlestown government didn’t think so and they threatened to sue. How did this government arrive at that decision? What thought process did officials use to conclude that they should use taxpayer funds to threaten a group of citizens who decided to share information about an important issue?

"Some of you may recall that a month ago or so, I posted a comment here about a bill making its way through the Senate, the Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act (“COICA”), that would allow US courts to “seize” domain names belonging to US or foreign websites simply upon a charge, by the Attorney General, that the site was “primarily devoted” to infringing activities.

I was the author of a law professors’ “Letter in Opposition” to the bill, which garnered around 50 co-signatories, based largely on the grounds that these seizures would represent “prior restraints on speech” under the First Amendment, and were blatantly unconstitutional.

Whether the Letter had any effect is not clear — but the bill, which passed through the Judiciary Committee without opposition, has been stalled by Senator Wyden of Oregon, who has put a “hold” on it.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the US government apparently believes it has the power to do what COICA purported to authorize it to do even without new statutory authority. Over the past weekend, as many news outlets have reported, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) — a division of the Department of Homeland Security — seized over 80 domain names being used by websites involved in online file-sharing (such as torrentfinder.com, a site pointing to other sites enabling use of the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol) and sale of allegedly counterfiet goods (e.g., louisvuittonoutlet.com, scarfsonline.com).

The warrants were apparently served on Verisign, the “registry” for several top-level domains (including .com and .net), ordering Verisign to transfer the domain names in question to the US government.

It’s an outrage. To begin with, there’s the bizarre spectacle of the Department of Homeland Security – which, last I looked, had some important issues before it that actually relate to “homeland security” — expending time and resources to protect purely private interests (of. e.g., the Louis Vuitton handbag manufacturers and Warner Brothers’ Records).

And the operation perfectly illustrates the objections we raised in the COICA Letter: 80 websites — many of them operating overseas — have now been prevented from speaking to US citizens even though the website operators, whose domains were seized, had no notice or opportunity to respond to the charges against them (and to argue, for instance, that they are NOT infringing copyrights or trademarks), no adversary hearing, and certainly no adjudication before a neutral, that anything unlawful is going on at these sites, only an affidavit to that effect submitted by the ICE.

I’m no expert in forfeiture law, to be sure — but the notion that the government can seize property before there’s been anything like a true hearing on the matter of unlawfulness of conduct strikes me as truly appalling. As I wrote in that COICA Letter:

Our ability to defend the principle of the single global Internet – the Internet where all of humanity has equal access to knowledge and ideas, the Internet that looks the same to, and allows free and unfettered communication between, users located in Shanghai and Seattle and Santiago, free of locally imposed censorship regimes – will be deeply compromised by [seizures of this kind], which would enshrine in U.S. law for the first time the contrary principle: that all countries have a right to insist on the removal of content, wherever located, from the global Internet in service of the exigencies of local law.

Nothing limits the application of this principle to copyright or trademark infringement, and nothing limits the application of this principle to actions by the United States; when all countries exercise this prerogative in support of their local legal regimes, as they surely will, we will have lost – or, more properly speaking, we will have destroyed – the single global interconnected communications platform that we have built over the past several decades and that holds out so much promise for the improvement of human society across the globe.

"We all shared a good laugh at the expense of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert fans shortly after the comedians’ “Restoring Sanity and/or Fear” rally when a video of rally-goers berating an “Obama = Keynesian” sign surfaced online. We first noticed the video when Politico’s Ben Smith posted it on his blog, as produced by The Partisans of Second City Network — a comedic enterprise headquartered in Chicago.

The video has been wildly popular on The Blaze (over 130,000 views). Glenn Beck talked about it extensively on radio and TV.

But now Second City seems to have removed the video from their YouTube channel. The version embedded on Ben Smith’s blog is now marked “private.”

Apologies for nothing new here at my usual time. I lost a large part of my day today scrapping Windows 7 and reverting to Windows XP. And now Hotmail is down -- where I had a couple of stories to put up here.

And it is just after midnight where I am now so I am going to go to bed and hope to catch up later

Thursday, December 02, 2010

Must not portray Obama as white

We read:

"A Louisiana State Senate employee was suspended without pay Tuesday after sending an e-mail to hundreds of government workers apparently trying to show President Barack Obama as white and suggesting that opposition to him doesn't equate to racism.

Several African-American lawmakers replied to the e-mail, complaining that it was offensive.

The message, sent by Senate researcher Tammy Crain-Waldrop and obtained by The Associated Press, includes a doctored photo of Obama with light skin, blue eyes and a different hairstyle and says, "Do you like him any better now? No? Me neither ..... Then you're not a racist."

"The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission plans to announce Wednesday a controversial proposal that would prohibit Internet providers from favoring or discriminating against any traffic that goes over their networks.

He would do so, however, without resorting to the more drastic step of changing the way the FCC regulates broadband providers, a move that would have more clearly asserted the government's authority over Internet access.

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

I have become a victim of a hate crime

And I'm "all shook up", as Elvis Presley used to say.

As most readers of this blog will be well aware, there are a lot of America-haters in America. The further Left you go, the more of them you meet. Even low-lifes like the Palestinians are seen as better than America by some Americans.

So it should be no surprise that there are a lot of America-haters in other countries too. And Australia is one such country.

I fly various flags from the flagpole in front of my house, depending on what is happening at the time. Last Thanksgiving, I ran up Old Glory in honour of that occasion. When I run up a flag, however, I tend to leave it there until something else crops up. So Old Glory was still flying at midnight on Monday.

Some young bigot didn't like that, however, so at midnight on Monday dumped a big rubbish bin full of domestic rubbish in my driveway. When I went out to see what the noise was, he went into a rant about what a dreadful place America is and what a bad person I must be to fly the American flag. He then strolled off down the street with his empty garbage bin.

Our bigot was not too bright, however. Among his garbage was something that probably identified him so I spent most of the next morning endeavouring to interest the police in what they saw as a trivial matter. I did manage to get them moving so I await developments.

If they catch him, I will try to have him prosecuted under State hate crime laws. That could be interesting. Such laws are very rarely used here but to have them used against a genuine hate crime would be good.

"An Italian atheist writer who claims he can no longer tolerate the abundance of crucifixes in Italy has asked for asylum in Sweden.

Ennio Montesi, from Jesi near Ancona in the Marche region, wrote to Swedish Premier Fredrik Reinfeldt on Wednesday complaining that the Italian state is forcing him to live with "a religious and political symbol of death".

Montesi has been 'debaptised' and recently earned headlines with a vocal campaign against the cross in a hospital ward he claimed increased his suffering during a recent hospital stay.

He might be better off in America. He is more likely to have some command of English than Swedish and the ACLU and others have pretty well erased any sign of Christianity from public spaces in America

Given my Presbyterian origins I don't like crucifixes much either, though I don't object to them. My old Presbyterian church was founded by the very austere "Wee Frees" and to this day it doesn't even have a cross in it, let alone a crucifix.

I probably shouldn't mention this but the cross was originally a pagan symbol and it is unlikely Jesus died on one. Jesus probably died with his hands nailed above his head.

There is no mention of a cross in the original Greek of the New Testament. The Greek words usually translated as cross are "stauros" and "xylon", which mean respectively "stake" and "wood" in classical Greek. Check the words in the authoritative Liddell & Scott's Greek-English Lexicon if you doubt me. I did. From Homer to Herodotus a "stauros" was a stake or pile driven into the ground. It's only Christian tradition that translates it as "cross".

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Homeland Security is seizing internet sites without notice

We read:

"Feds have seized at least 70 websites for copyright and trademark violations. The 70+ domain names have been seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a department under Homeland Security. The shut downs were initiated through court-ordered warrants.

ICE’s notices includes copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit goods.

A spokesman of ICE told Torrent Freak: “ICE office of Homeland Security Investigations executed court-ordered seizure warrants against a number of domain names. As this is an ongoing investigation, there are no additional details available at this time.”

Most of the blocked domains are e-commerce site, or websites selling goods like clothes, bags etc.

The clothes and handbags are apparently suspected of being "knock-offs" (cheap copies of well-known brands) but how such goods are a threat to homeland security is not remotely obvious. It would be funny if it were not so ominous. Clearly they can block any internet content whenever they like.

And note that "copyright infringement" is one of their excuses. Most blogs reproduce at least some news content from elsewhere so Homeland Security could suddenly shut down 99% of conservative blogs on that ground if they chose. You don't even get a warning notice.

Rather sad when the chief danger to free speech is the U.S. government. Obama could shut down all conservative blogs 6 months before the 2012 elections and nobody could do anything about it. You could go to court but getting a result there could take years.

Is the American national anthem politically incorrect? From the 4th verse:Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

Mohammad

The truth can be offensive to some but it must be said

"HATE SPEECH" is free speech: The U.S. Supreme Court stated the general rule regarding protected speech in Texas v. Johnson (109 S.Ct. at 2544), when it held: "The government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable." Federal courts have consistently followed this. Said Virginia federal district judge Claude Hilton: "The First Amendment does not recognize exceptions for bigotry, racism, and religious intolerance or ideas or matters some may deem trivial, vulgar or profane."

Even some advocacy of violence is protected by the 1st Amendment. In Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously that speech advocating violent illegal actions to bring about social change is protected by the First Amendment "except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action."

The double standard: Atheists can put up signs and billboards saying that Christianity is wrong and that is hunky dory. But if a Christian says that homosexuality is wrong, that is attacked as "hate speech"

One for the militant atheists to consider: "...it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg" -- Thomas Jefferson

"I think no subject should be off-limits, and I regard the laws in many Continental countries criminalizing Holocaust denial as philosophically repugnant and practically useless – in that they confirm to Jew-haters that the Jews control everything (otherwise why aren’t we allowed to talk about it?)" -- Mark Steyn

Voltaire's most famous saying was actually a summary of Voltaire's thinking by one of his biographers rather than something Voltaire said himself. Nonetheless it is a wholly admirable sentiment: "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it". I am of a similar mind.

The traditional advice about derogatory speech: "Sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you". Apparently people today are not as emotionally robust as their ancestors were.

Why conservatives should not respond to Leftist abuse: "Never wrestle with a pig, because you'll both just get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

The KKK were members of the DEMOCRATIC party. Google "Klanbake" if you doubt it

A phobia is an irrational fear, so the terms "Islamophobic" and "homophobic" embody a claim that the people so described are mentally ill. There is no evidence for either claim. Both terms are simply abuse masquerading as diagnoses and suggest that the person using them is engaged in propaganda rather than in any form of rational or objective discourse.

Leftists often pretend that any mention of race is "racist" -- unless they mention it, of course. But leaving such irrational propaganda aside, which statements really are racist? Can statements of fact about race be "racist"? Such statements are simply either true or false. The most sweeping possible definition of racism is that a racist statement is a statement that includes a negative value judgment of some race. Absent that, a statement is not racist, for all that Leftists might howl that it is. Facts cannot be racist so nor is the simple statement of them racist. Here is a statement that cannot therefore be racist by itself, though it could be false: "Blacks are on average much less intelligent than whites". If it is false and someone utters it, he could simply be mistaken or misinformed.

Categorization is a basic human survival skill so racism as the Left define it (i.e. any awareness of race) is in fact neither right nor wrong. It is simply human

Whatever your definition of racism, however, a statement that simply mentions race is not thereby racist -- though one would think otherwise from American Presidential election campaigns. Is a statement that mentions dogs, "doggist" or a statement that mentions cats, "cattist"?

If any mention of racial differences is racist then all Leftists are racist too -- as "affirmative action" is an explicit reference to racial differences

Was Abraham Lincoln a racist? "You and we are different races. We have between us a broader difference than exists between almost any other two races. Whether it is right or wrong I need not discuss, but this physical difference is a great disadvantage to us both, as I think your race suffer very greatly, many of them by living among us, while ours suffer from your presence. In a word, we suffer on each side. If this be admitted, it affords a reason at least why we should be separated. It is better for both, therefore, to be separated." -- Spoken at the White House to a group of black community leaders, August 14th, 1862

Gimlet-eyed Leftist haters sometimes pounce on the word "white" as racist. Will the time come when we have to refer to the White House as the "Full spectrum of light" House?

The spirit of liberty is "the spirit which is not too sure that it is right." and "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it." -- Judge Learned Hand

Mostly, a gaffe is just truth slipping out

Two lines below of a famous hymn that would be incomprehensible to Leftists today ("honor"? "right"? "freedom?" Freedom to agree with them is the only freedom they believe in)

First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean

It is of course the hymn of the USMC -- still today the relentless warriors that they always were.

It seems a pity that the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosopher Epictetus is now little known. Remember, wrote the Stoic thinker, "that foul words or blows in themselves are no outrage, but your judgment that they are so. So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you. Wherefore make it your endeavour not to let your impressions carry you away."

"Since therefore the knowledge and survey of vice is in this world so necessary to the constituting of human virtue, and the scanning of error to the confirmation of truth, how can we more safely, and with less danger, scout into the regions of sin and falsity than by reading all manner of tractates, and hearing all manner of reason?" -- English poet John Milton (1608-1674) in Areopagitica

Leftists can try to get you fired from your job over something that you said and that's not an attack on free speech. But if you just criticize something that they say, then that IS an attack on free speech

The intellectual Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) could have been speaking of much that goes on today when he said: "The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane."

I despair of the ADL. Jews have enough problems already and yet in the ADL one has a prominent Jewish organization that does its best to make itself offensive to Christians. Their Leftism is more important to them than the welfare of Jewry -- which is the exact opposite of what they ostensibly stand for! Jewish cleverness seems to vanish when politics are involved. Fortunately, Christians are true to their saviour and have loving hearts. Jewish dissatisfaction with the myopia of the ADL is outlined here. Note that Foxy was too grand to reply to it.

There are also two blogspot blogs which record what I think are my main recent articles here and here. Similar content can be more conveniently accessed via my subject-indexed list of short articles here or here (I rarely write long articles these days)

NOTE: The archives provided by blogspot below are rather inconvenient. They break each month up into small bits. If you want to scan whole months at a time, the backup archives will suit better. See here or here